But not too busy to help other busy people get in the kitchen and cook a delicious meal even after a long day. That's the idea behind "Cooking Confidence: Dinner Made Simple" (224 pages, Taunton Press, $24.95) her newest and 17th cookbook, based on her PBS series, "Joanne Weir's Cooking Confidence."

"Everybody wants to make food for their family and friends and they want to sit down to a good meal, but time gets in the way," Weir says.

Her cookbook, released in November, features simple recipes that aren't hard to make, but have a few tweaks so they're more intriguing, she says. And, she includes techniques, tips, pantry essentials and suggestions for wine pairings and dessert.

Since Weir's at Copita every day when she's in town — "It's funny; I've written about the Mediterranean since 1994 and then I opened a restaurant that's Mexican," she says with a laugh — she isn't always available to cook every night. But when she's home, she makes the same kind of simple dinners for her husband of four years, attorney Joe Ehrlich, and herself as she features in her cookbook.

"My background is working at Chez Panisse so I've never wanted to be a person who wanted to spend three days in the kitchen making something," the San Francisco resident says. "If people want to spend very little time but get great results, that's my book. If you want to spend days in the kitchen, that's not my book."

The IJ chatted with Weir as she prepares to talk about her cookbook next week at a Cooks With Books dinner at Left Bank Restaurant and a winter celebration dinner at Homeward Bound's Fresh Starts Chef Events.

Q: What intimidates people most about cooking?

A: I talked to people and I asked, "What is it? Why do you not cook?" And one thing people kept saying over and over and over, and honestly it was shocking, "I don't have confidence" and I never thought of that. They didn't know what the terms meant. I just wanted to take the mystery out of it. My feeling was that if they were successful with one recipe, that they would be tempted to try another, another and another.

Q: From your travels abroad, is that a universal thing or an American thing?

A: I don't think the cooking skills are handed down from our moms as much here as it is in some other countries. I think the other thing is we watch so much on television but a lot of the shows are much more about competitions than they are about really teaching us how to make a soufflé. Not that a soufflé is something every person is going to want to make, but we need to give people the "I can do it" attitude.

Q: The Bay Area is so food-obsessed. Don't we all know how to cook here?

A: We do. One of the things I see is that in cities, people are less literate about food. I know that sounds really weird but that's because we have so many options to go out. I don't see it as much in San Francisco; I see it in New York. There's more interest in cooking at home, especially with younger people.

Q: You married a few years ago; how has your cooking changed besides having to cook for two?

A: I was traveling even more before I married Joe. Now that I'm home more, I definitely cook more. But I cook very simply during the week. I can whip up dinner in 10 to 15 minutes.

Q: Does he cook, too?

A: No, he doesn't at all! He has three daughters, and he says he's cooked so much for them he doesn't want to cook anymore. He made me waffles once. He helps me make chicken stock, and he's really proud of it.

Q: What could you eat all the time and not tire of?

A: Tacos. Lately we've been doing this pork belly taco that's so out of this world. And a lamb taco where the lamb is cooked on the spit and then braised; oh my God!

Q: Any food you can't stand?

A: I don't like truffle oil. It's too strong.

Q: What are your most treasured family recipes?

A: I am a fourth generation professional cook — my mother was, my grandfather, my great-grandmother. Some of the things I love, and this is going to sound ridiculous, a perfectly roasted chicken and also my mother's spaghetti and meatballs; it's amazing. My other comfort food is meatloaf with roasted butternut squash.

Q: What's the one take-away message that you hope readers get from "Cooking Confidence"?

A: To keep cooking. People can do it. It's a really wonderful way to spend time at the table with your friends and family, and it's a great way to nurture people. There's nothing better than a home-cooked meal.

RECIPES

Piadine with arugula and plum salad

If you're anything like me, you always order a salad with your favorite pizza when eating out. This dinner joins pizza and a salad in my version of Italy's piadine insalata, a thin flatbread topped with a salad, traditionally made in the Emilia Romagna. Here, I've taken my recipe for the perfect pizza dough and topped it with peppery arugula, juicy plums and crunchy pistachios. It's the best of both worlds.

Makes 2 piadine, 12 to 13 inches in diameter; serves 6

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; more for the dough

1 shallot, minced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 recipe Weir dough

Unbleached all-purpose flour

6 cups loosely packed arugula

2 plums, halved, pitted and thinly sliced

1/2 cup roasted and salted pistachios

Heat the oven to 550 degrees.

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, and shallot. Season with salt and pepper.

Punch down the dough. On a floured surface, divide the dough into two pieces and form each into a round ball. Stretch one ball of dough into a 12- to 13-inch circle, ¼- to 1/8-inch thick. If it is difficult for you to shape the dough this large, let the dough rest for 5 minutes and try again. If needed, use a rolling pin to facilitate the shaping process.

Transfer the circle of dough to a well-floured pizza stone or peel. Lightly brush the dough to within ½ inch of the edge with oil. Using the sharp tines of a fork, puncture the dough several times (this will prevent it from forming big bubbles in the oven). Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone and bake until golden and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. In the meantime, toss half of the arugula, plums, and pistachios with the half of the vinaigrette.

Remove the pizza and top with the salad and serve immediately. (Don't wait to serve this until the second pizza is ready. The pizza should be served hot because the texture changes as the pizza cools.)

Continue with the remaining ingredients to make a second piadine.

Weir dough

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

¾ cup plus 1 tablespoons lukewarm water (110 degrees)

2 cups unbleached bread flour

Kosher salt

In a bowl, combine the yeast, 1/4 cup of the lukewarm water, and 1/4 cup of the flour. Let stand for 30 minutes. Add the remaining 1¾ cups flour, ½ cup plus 1 tablespoons warm water, and ½ teaspoon salt. Mix the dough thoroughly and turn out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth, elastic, and a bit tacky to the touch, 7 to 8 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and turn to cover with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place (about 75 degrees) until it doubles in volume, 1 to 1½ hours. Or, preferably, let the dough rise in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, let it come to room temperature and proceed with the recipe.

Preparing this dish will fill your home with the most intoxicating aroma ever. The smell alone may be enough to inspire the occasional home cook to prepare dinner on a regular basis. A mixture of orange juice and wine is infused with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and anise seed, then poured over sautéed apples, pears, and sweet Italian sausage and baked. The meal tastes just as wonderful as it smells.

By the way, don't limit sausages to this recipe — there are many excellent quality types at the market these days, everything from hot and spicy to sweet and aromatic. And the best part is that they can be prepared in minutes, making dinner almost instantaneous. For this recipe, use a sweeter variety sausage for best results.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and cook until it is melted. Add the pears and apples, cut side down, in a single layer, and cook until they are golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and place the pears and apples in a large baking dish in a single layer. Season with salt.

In the meantime, add the orange juice, late-harvest wine, orange zest, ginger, cloves, cinnamon stick and anise seed to the frying pan over high heat. Bring to a boil and immediately remove from the heat. Discard the ginger, cinnamon stick, and cloves.

Add the sausages to the baking dish with the pears and apples. Pour the orange juice and wine mixture over the pears, apples, and sausages and season with salt. Cover loosely with foil and bake until the sausages are cooked and the pears and apples are tender but still hold their shape, 25 to 35 minutes.

To serve, cut each sausage in half on the diagonal. Place 3 pieces of sausage and half of a pear and apple on each plate. Drizzle with the pan juices and serve immediately.